Green Party set to vie for all 18 South Tyneside seats in May

The Green Party is aiming to field candidates in all 18 South Tyneside Council wards being contested at May’s local elections.

The plan coincides with a recent doubling of party membership in the borough.

The party is also putting up candidates in both borough Parliamentary seats for the first time – Shirley Ford in South Shields and David Herbert in Jarrow.

The news comes at a time when the party’s profile nationally is rising, courtesy of a surprise endorsement from Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Cameron has refused to take part in any television debate until broadcasters agree that the Greens be included too.

“As a democratically elected leader, I have no reason to doubt his motives for doing that, but whatever his motives, his intervention does mean that people across the country are taking a look at us,” said Mrs Ford.

“Something like 300,000 people have signed an online petition supporting our involvement in the debates.”

Later this week, the borough’s Green Party branch is to meet to select candidates to fight for council seats in May, and a public meeting is also being lined up.

Mrs Ford said: “There has been a surge in membership.

“It has more than doubled in the last couple of months, from about 20 to 42, the last time I looked.

“There’s probably a mixture of reasons why that has happened, including the publicity in the national media and the fact that we have been very visible since the Westoe by-election in September last year through our beach cleans, park cleans, the stall we had in King Street, South Shields, and our support for the Gazette’s campaign to cut business rates.”

Green activists were also out in force at The Nook in South Shields on Saturday asking the public to sign a petition opposing Harton Technology College’s plans to become an academy.

Mrs Ford said: “There is definitely a different vibe towards the party now.

“At the last general election in 2010, we stood in a handful of borough wards, but I can’t see a reason why we can’t have candidates for all 18 wards in May.

“That’s our aim anyway. All the members who have signed up in recent weeks will be able to stand. We don’t have any rules that forbid that.

“The party has pledged to stand in at least 75 per cent of constituencies, and we are determined to exceed that in the North East.

“We really want to give everyone the chance to vote Green in the general election.”